Shell-Dweller is about as good as we could hope for here.

Pack 1:

Kodama's Reach
Search for Tomorrow
Blinding Beam
Giant Dustwasp
Pallid Mycoderm
Skyreach Manta
Sporoloth Ancient
Greater Mossdog
Imperiosaur
Desperate Ritual
Reach of Branches
Thallid Germinator
Raven's Crime
Thundering Giant
Arcbound Wanderer

Pack 2:

Meloku the Clouded Mirror FOIL
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Imperiosaur
Aethersnipe
Kodama's Reach
Giant Dustwasp
Sporoloth Ancient
Erratic Mutation
Durkwood Baloth
Riftsweeper
Logic Knot
Raven's Crime
Walker of the Grove
Petals of Insight
Syphon Life

Pack 3:

Search for Tomorrow
Keiga, the Tide Star
Erratic Mutation
Penumbra Spider
Thallid Shell-Dweller
Thallid
Citanul Woodreaders
Thallid Shell-Dweller

Next...

Worm Harvest
Tidehollow Sculler
Desperate Ritual
Rift Elemental
Faerie Macabre
Raven's Crime
Sylvan Bounty

Bounty.

Storm is open, folks.

desperate ritual for the duck in all of us, but mainly Jman

I guess bounty for cycling. I suppose we are not playing our raven's crimes.

Wow, nobody's drafting black at all are they. Or storm.
Voting bounty.

Sylvan Bounty is actually good despite looking awful.

I'd like to know how you have any idea how much I've played this format? A 1/1 for 1 is on par. We have absolutely nothing to do turn 1. A 1/1 body is better than nothing. The potential to generate more 1/1's is also okay. There are exactly 9 CMC 1 creatures in MM. Thallid is no better or worse than any of them aside from Figure of Destiny.

Bounty. Wish we had taken storm.

I know you've never played this format because you pick bad cards and you think bad cards are good. I've played this format a lot and I've won a lot of it. What I'm saying is not irrefutable, but at least argue why I'm wrong.

Look at the rest of the format, what other decks have a density of turn one plays? What does a 1/1 kill in this format? How is a 1/1 for one on part with anything in this format. It's true that if I had a choice between no card and Thallid, I would take thallid because it's a card. However, Thallid is not better than a basic land in this format. It doesn't help you go over the top of anybody. The 4/4s that make 1/1s are good because 4/4 is big in this format and getting random 1/1s to to Tromp the Domains or allowing you to bash with your 4/4s and blocking on the crack backs is good. 1/1 cannot swing through anything and making 1/1s to block isn't good when you're not doing anything with them.

Give reasons to why a card is good. Saying it's a 1/1 that makes more 1/1s is just reading what the card does. Explain why that is good. You haven't played the format so at least explain theoretically what this card does to make the deck better.

I remember it being above average in Fallen Empires sealed.

Bounty.

Alright. On straight statistics, there are 90 creatures with CMC 3 or less. Thallid blocks roughly half of those, trading with roughly half of those it blocks. That's better than any other creature we have before turn 4. Your continuous instance that a basic land is better has nothing to do with that fact that we had to pick a card, from the pack, which didn't have any basic land. At this point, our first three turns are thallids. Having something down first turn is better than nothing. And guess what, if no one else has a relevant turn 1 play, thallid is 1 damage turn 2. Thallid could easily deal 2-3 damage and then chump saving us from a few points of damage, easily getting us closer to our game winning bombs. Is thallid isn't the best turn 1 creature. Not by far, not in this format or any other, but its the ONLY turn 1 creature we have at all. And its better than rift bolt for our deck, since we aren't red in the slightest.

Thallid is good bc it makes chu put on his lecture pants, which is an improvement over his nudest lifestyle.

But in reality Thallid is bad bc it's only good when you play it on T1 and your opponent literally dies. Literally.

Basically this.

The problem with thallid is that it's a 1/1 and 1/1s don't do anything on a lot of boards.

I don't dispute this point. But right now thallid is a better option than nothing. Also saying that a common one drop isn't good because it isn't relevant past the early game is like saying our bombs are bad because they aren't relevant in the first few turns. Each card has its own part to play in our game plan.

Thallid was taken over Rift Bolt.

We passed a good card for an unplayable one.

And no, it's not saying that at all. Our entire deck is built around trying to get more lands into play and making land drops so we can play these big morons that murder them. Thallid doesn't do that at all.

You can keep defending Thallid (I don't know why you would), but you don't have any game experience. Your theoretical about Thallid being good isn't the actual. Go play some MMA and then come back and seriously say that Thallid is good.

I have game experience, I have played MM, and thallid is playable. To be honest, you keep saying I'm not giving reasons for thallid being playable, yet you've done nothing but say you have experience and that it isn't good. Why isn't it good? Let's see some proof from your end?

This is how I'd build this pool:
1 x Durkwood Baloth
2 x Search for Tomorrow

1 x Riftsweeper
2 x Thallid Shell-Dweller
2 x Giant Dustwasp
1 x Sylvan Bounty

1 x Thallid Germinator
1 x Blinding Beam
2 x Erratic Mutation
2 x Kodama's Reach

2 x Imperiosaur
1 x Penumbra Spider
1 x Thrashing Mossdog

1 x Sporoloth Ancient
1 x Meloku the Clouded Mirror

1 x Æthersnipe
1 x Keiga, the Tide Star
1 x Oona, Queen of the Fae

8 x Forest
6 x Island
1 x Plains
1 x Swamp

Sideboard
2 x Raven's Crime
1 x Thallid
1 x Desperate Ritual
1 x Logic Knot
1 x Syphon Life
1 x Citanul Woodreaders
1 x Petals of Insight
1 x Walker of the Grove
1 x Thundering Giant
1 x Arcbound Wanderer
1 x Sporoloth Ancient
1 x Skyreach Manta
1 x Reach of Branches
1 x Pallid Mycoderm


We have three very good cards to play on turn one: a Durkwood Baloth and two copies of Search for tomorrow. All three legitimate first picks in a weak pack. Turn two has a lot of plays too, but three is a little troublesome. This deck actually has a lot of options; there's the Manta, Raven's Crime, the second Ancient, Reach of Branches in sideboard. In fact, sideboarding is probably its strongest point. Shell-dwellers, for example, do nothing against some decks and can be exchanged for Raven's Crime, swapping most Islands for Swamps.

I went all in on land search, with double Search and Reach and the landcycler, enabling me to play only 16 lands over four basic types. This may be a bit too adventurous, but hey, this is a ramp deck

Swamp?

Pack 1:

Kodama's Reach
Search for Tomorrow
Blinding Beam
Giant Dustwasp
Pallid Mycoderm
Skyreach Manta
Sporoloth Ancient
Greater Mossdog
Imperiosaur
Desperate Ritual
Reach of Branches
Thallid Germinator
Raven's Crime
Thundering Giant
Arcbound Wanderer

Pack 2:

Meloku the Clouded Mirror FOIL
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Imperiosaur
Aethersnipe
Kodama's Reach
Giant Dustwasp
Sporoloth Ancient
Erratic Mutation
Durkwood Baloth
Riftsweeper
Logic Knot
Raven's Crime
Walker of the Grove
Petals of Insight
Syphon Life

Pack 3:

Search for Tomorrow
Keiga, the Tide Star
Erratic Mutation
Penumbra Spider
Thallid Shell-Dweller
Thallid
Citanul Woodreaders
Thallid Shell-Dweller
Sylvan Bounty

Next...

Death Denied
Mogg War Marshal
Nantuko Shaman
Absorb Vis
Raven's Crime
Terashi's Grasp FOIL